Data in Dashboards is refreshed automatically in each monitoring cycle. The refresh interval is 1 min. in the Professional and Ultimate Plans and 10 min. in the Free Plan.

How to customize how data is visualized in the Performance Dashboard?

Users can modify the layout of Performance Dashboard, select Dashlets density, change the order of the Dashlets, etc. The settings are saved on a per-user basis.

The data in the Performance Dashboard can be displayed using dense, sparse and mini layouts. To switch between layouts, use the dropdown in the top right corner of the Performance Dashboard (1).

Sparse Layout (default) shows metrics in the form of Charts, tables, and Gauges.

Dense Layout shows metrics in the form of mini Charts, tables, and Gauges.

Mini Layout shows metrics in the form of Gauges.

The Dashboard can display data in 1, 6, 12, 24, 48 hours and 1-week views. The values for metrics displayed in longer periods are pro-actively aggregated, so there is no performance penalty when data is displayed for longer periods.

To switch view, use the dropdown in the top right corner of the Performance Dashboard (2).

How to display historic data?

By default, the data in the Dashboard is displayed in the “Live mode”, i.e. in real-time. It’s also possible to turn off the Live mode and switch to the Historic mode, in order to investigate the past events in more detail. When in Historic mode CloudMonix displays the state of the whole Dashboard as it was at the selected time.

To show the Historical Dashboard, toggle the Live Mode switch in the top right corner of the Performance Dashboard. The link to Historical Dashboard is included in the notifications for CloudMonix alerts.

Users can create multiple Dashboards to optimize layout for certain groups of users. For example, there might be a dedicated dashboard for database administrators which displays all resources with “Databases” category. Development teams might define category for each application they work on, or environment (Dev, Test, Staging, Production, etc.).

Note: during Setup Wizard stage, CloudMonix will automatically suggest categories for ARM resources, based on resource group information from Azure.

One resource can belong to multiple categories. Categories can be edited in the resource configuration dialog:

Using the dropdown next to the category name, users can quickly rename the category, and add or remove resources from the category.

What information can be displayed in the Performance Dashboard for each resource?

Every Dashboard consists of multiple Dashlets which display data for an individual monitored resource.

The graphs and gauges visualize selected numeric metrics. After hovering over a specific point in time, CloudMonix will display the exact values of all metrics shown in the chart (1).

Raised Alerts are visualized in charts using alert icons (2) and (3):

Triggered Actions are visualized in charts using an action icon (1), (2) and (3):

Using buttons in the top right corner of the Dashlet users can:

(1) Disable/enable monitoring of a specific resource

(2) Download metrics data in the CSV format

(3) Manually trigger available actions on the resource

(4) Display Resource Configuration dialog in order to edit configuration

(5) Maximize the Dashlet to see all of the other non-numeric metrics on one screen

Using buttons in the top left corner of the Dashlet users can display information, such as:

(1) Numeric metrics, visualized using charts and gauges

(2) Non-numeric metrics, usually visualized using tables

(3) Status (if Status metric is defined)

(5) Alert History (if any alerts are defined)

(6) Action History (if any automated actions are defined)

(7) Monitoring Log (very useful for debugging issues)

Using buttons in the top left corner of the chart, users can switch between Area and Line charts, as well as switch between displaying Absolute and Relative values in charts:

By default, CloudMonix displays metrics using relative (normalized) values. Some metrics might be difficult to see using absolute values chart, if their absolute values are small compared to absolute values of other metrics. For example, compare the charts for the same resource using relative values (above) and absolute values (below).

How to display metrics using Gauges?

Gauges are visual tools that allow to quickly identify the most important problems with just one quick look. The gauges are displayed in each possible Dashboard density (sparse, dense and mini).

In order to visualize a metric using Gauge, in the Resource Configuration Dialog tick the “Highlight on Dashboard” checkbox and specify the best and worst possible values. The information about best and worst possible values is used to determine the color displayed in the Gauges.

For example, when monitoring CPU or memory usage, then the best possible value is 0, and the worst is 100. When monitoring the free disk space, then 0 would be the worst value, and 1024 (or bigger number) the best.

It’s possible to select up to three numeric metrics for each resource. If more are selected, CloudMonix will display only three metrics as gauges and ignore the rest of metrics.